Experimental estimation of the photons visiting probability profiles in time-resolved diffuse reflectance measurement

A time-gated intensified CCD camera was applied for time-resolved imaging of light penetrating in an optically turbid medium. Spatial distributions of light penetration probability in the plane perpendicular to the axes of the source and the detector were determined at different source positions. Furthermore, visiting probability profiles of diffuse reflectance measurement were obtained by the convolution of the light penetration distributions recorded at different source positions. Experiments were carried out on homogeneous phantoms, more realistic two-layered tissue phantoms based on the human skull filled with Intralipid-ink solution and on cadavers. It was noted that the photons visiting probability profiles depend strongly on the source-detector separation, the delay between the laser pulse and the photons collection window and the complex tissue composition of the human head.